Be sure to check out today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about Villa de Leon and other L.A. locations featured in The Gambler. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.
Liz’s House from “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”
There are two kinds of people in this world – those who can watch movies over and over and over again and those who cannot. I am in the former category. During my teens and twenties, my parents owned a condominium in Hawaii. We would vacation there every summer, along with other families who owned units in the same community. Our condo was the kids’ hang-out spot (we had a VCR and large movie library) and, for reasons that no longer remain known to me, somehow a tradition began in which all of the youngsters would gather (usually a good four of five of us piled into the pull-out sofa bed) to watch Jumpin’ Jack Flash our first night together in Hawaii each and every year. (Our second night’s viewing was always Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.) Because of this, the film holds a very special place in my heart. So when my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, emailed me recently to let me know that one of his readers had asked for some help in tracking down the house where Liz Carlson (Annie Potts) lived in the movie, I ecstatically offered to lend a hand.
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He wound up not needing my help. While watching Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Owen spotted an address number of “515” on the curb in front of Liz’s house. Though the 1986 comedy was lensed in both New York and Los Angeles, he decided to start his hunt in L.A. and did Google Images searches for numerous permutations and combinations of “515” and “Los Angeles.” When he eventually got to “515 Dr. Los Angeles, CA,” the very first picture to pop up was of Liz’s house! The photo was attached to a Redfin page which listed the address as 515 North Bundy Drive in Brentwood. Prior to finding the dwelling, Owen had asked me if I thought it was in California or New York, and I told him that my inclination was New York. Ironically though, I kept having a nagging thought that the home looked a lot like Casa Walsh from the pilot episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. I should have listened to my gut because the two properties turned out to be located about a mile away from each other.
In real life, the 1938 home was designed by Welton Becket, the prolific L.A. architect who also gave us the Cinerama Dome, the Capital Records Building, the Los Angeles Music Center and the Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport. Becket used the property as his primary residence through the 1940s.
The property boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,800 square feet, a 0.28-acre lot, 4 fireplaces, beamed ceilings, wood built-ins, French doors, a bonus art studio space and a kitchen with both a dining area and an office.
The residence appears twice in Jumpin’ Jack Flash (which just so happens to be the first movie Penny Marshall ever directed). It first pops up in the scene in which Liz explains to Terri Dolittle (Whoopi Goldberg) that the man she is trying to save is being chased by the KGB.
In a later scene, Terri goes to Liz’s house to ask her for more help, only to find the place vacant.
Thanks to the photos posted on Redfin, I learned that the real life interior of the home was also used in Jumpin’ Jack Flash. Though the kitchen has since been updated, it is still recognizable from its appearance. (That’s Life Goes On’s Kellie Martin in her big screen debut pictured below.)
The living room was also featured in the movie (love those built-ins!).
The Dutch doors are also pretty amazing!
The dining room also made a brief appearance in the film.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Liz’s house from Jumpin’ Jack Flash is located at 515 North Bundy Drive in Brentwood.
24/7 Restaurant
All stalkers have those locations – the ones that, despite years of searching, remain on our unfound list. Miraculously (and thanks to an insane amount of good fortune), I managed to track down one of mine recently, after over a decade of hunting for it!
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During the early 2000s, I had major girl crushes on both Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. (Truth be told, I still love their movies, as evidenced in this post.) In 2003, I came across the image below in a magazine (though I can’t for the life of me remember which magazine), thought it was adorable, cut it out and pasted it to the front of my acting class notebook. Every time I looked at it, I wondered at which diner the photograph had been taken. From time to time, I would search for the place, but because I had so little to go on (I wasn’t even sure if it was in L.A.), I figured it would never be found. Flash forward to this past January when I randomly got inspired to do some sleuthing. I happened to spot the picture, as well as other images from the shoot, on the Mary-Kate and Ashley Fan website and was floored to see that the name of the photographer, Gail Albert, was mentioned. I did a Google search to see if I could find contact information for Gail, came across her website and emailed her.
That email was sent with feeble hope. For one, I never thought that Gail would get back to me and, if she did, I never thought she’d recall the diner’s location and, if by some miracle she did remember, never did I believe the place would still be in operation! Well, not only did she reply (within just a few hours, no less!), but she informed me that the shoot had taken place at the 24/7 Restaurant at The Standard hotel in West Hollywood, which, miraculously, is still in existence! My mind was absolutely BLOWN over the news and I could NOT have been more excited to get out there to see the restaurant for myself!
I have been to The Standard many times over the years (and even blogged about it back in 2008), but, for whatever reason, had never ventured inside 27/7 Restaurant.
The Standard was originally built in 1962 as the Thunderbird Motel. For a time it operated as the Hollywood Sunset Hotel and then as a retirement home before being taken over by hotelier Andre Balazs in 1998.
Balazs hired production designer Shawn Hausman to remodel the interior of the property and the result of her efforts is spectacularly unique. The lobby’s most famous feature is the glass display case located behind the front desk, which exhibits live performance art (usually of the nude variety).
The lobby also features shag-carpeted ceilings and walls;
hanging bubble chairs;
and a pool flanked by royal blue AstroTurf.
The property opened as The Standard, Hollywood Hotel in 1999 and, thanks to its retro-modern aesthetic and celebrity investors, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, Cameron Diaz and The Smashing Pumpkins’ D’arcy Wretzky and James Iha, the place became an instant hit with the It Crowd.
27/7 Restaurant, which originally had no name but was simply referred to as “the restaurant,” is located off of The Standard’s lobby.
I was absolutely floored to see that virtually nothing about the place had been changed since Mary-Kate and Ashley’s 2003 photo shoot.
Unfortunately though, my server did inform me that a remodel might be occurring in the near future, so if you would like to see the restaurant in its current state, I would get out there quickly.
I cannot express how nice the wait staff at 24/7 Restaurant were! Their friendliness was such a welcome change from what I had experienced just a few hours prior at the 18th Street Coffee House in Santa Monica. Not only did my server tell me that I was welcome to take all of the photographs of the place that I wanted, but when I asked if he could take a picture of me in the same booth where MK & A sat, not only did he happily oblige, but he snapped about a dozen pics just to make sure he had captured the correct angle!
For those fellow stalkers who also want to re-create the photo, Mary-Kate and Ashley posed in the fifth booth from 24/7’s entrance during the shoot.
The Standard, Hollywood Hotel is also a filming location. In the Season 3 episodes of Sex and the City titled “Escape from New York” and “Sex and Another City,” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and the girls stayed at The Standard while vacationing in L.A.
The hotel was used quite extensively in the episodes.
If only I had a pair of different colored shoes!
In the episodes, Carrie stayed in one of The Standard’s real life rooms – Room 322.
The spot where Carrie had some trouble navigating up a hill in her rented stick shift can be found on the eastern side of the hotel, on North Sweetzer Avenue.
The Standard was also featured in the Season 3 episode of Entourage titled “I Wanna Be Sedated,” in the scene in which Turtle (cutie Jerry Ferrara) and Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase (Kevin Dillon) search for Saigon, who played himself.
Things do not quite go as planned and Drama winds up being hung upside-down from one of The Standard’s balconies.
The Standard was also where Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) threw a rather raucous hotel party at the beginning of the 2011 flick The Green Hornet.
Ally Hilfiger and Jaime Gleicher stayed at The Standard while visiting L.A. in the 8th episode of the MTV reality series Rich Girls, but, unfortunately, I could not find a copy of the episode anywhere with which to make screen captures.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: 24/7 Restaurant is located inside of The Standard, Hollywood Hotel at 8300 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.
New “L.A.” Mag Post – About the “Three’s Company” Building
Be sure to check out today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about the apartment building from Three’s Company. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.
Hatfield’s Restaurant from “Chef”
Today’s location is a bit of a bummer, I’m afraid. Ever since seeing the movie Chef (one of my favorites of 2014), I was itching to stalk Hatfield’s restaurant, which appeared quite extensively throughout the flick. So when I discovered that it had recently closed, I was devastated. But I ventured on over to see the exterior of it in person, nonetheless, while I was in L.A. a few weeks ago.
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Hatfield’s restaurant was established by Karen and Quinn Hatfield in 2006. The fine dining eatery was originally located in a small space on Beverly Boulevard, but moved to 6703 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood in 2010.
The Melrose Avenue space had housed a restaurant named Citrus until 2001 and then went through a succession of different occupants, including Alex, Meson G, and Red Pearl Kitchen. When the Hatfields leased the site, they remodeled the interior, creating an open space filled with bright white accents. While I was hoping to get a peek of that interior via the front windows, due to the way the restaurant is set up, not much was visible, unfortunately.
For reasons that were not specified, Hatfield’s closed its doors in December 2014 and the property that once housed it currently sits vacant. Karen and Quinn have since opened Odys & Penelope Churrasco and Grill in the Fairfax district and they still operate The Sycamore Kitchen in that same neighborhood, as well.
In Chef, Hatfield’s masked as the Gaellic-style Brentwood eatery named Gauloises where Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) worked.
I fell in love with the restaurant’s open kitchen while watching Chef and was dying to stalk – and photograph – it. A place like that is just screaming to be photographed! I sincerely hope that whoever takes over the space leaves its design intact.
According to a May 2014 Eater LA interview with Favreau, who wrote, produced, directed and starred in Chef, the kitchen is what made him choose the site for filming. He says, “Cinematically it was wonderful. When you build a restaurant on a stage for a Hollywood film it looks so perfect. This one had a beauty to it and was very well laid out. I loved how the front and back of the house you could see the open kitchen – you could see in – that was fun for the cameraman. Kitchens aren’t usually aesthetically pleasing places in reality; they’re generally hot and crowded. The visual aspect of it isn’t a priority. This one is.”
The culinary scenes in Chef are absolutely beautiful – and not just because of the design of Hatfield’s kitchen. Eater LA characterizes the sequences as “food porn” and that’s a pretty accurate description. Roy Choi, the chef behind the immensely popular Korean taco food truck fleet Kogi, consulted on the movie. According to Jon, before coming onboard Choi said, “’I’ll do it but you have to get the kitchen right. Movies always get it wrong. I’ll do everything you need. I’ll train you, do the menus, look over your scripts, help you in the editing room. Whatever you want. But you have to promise you’ll get the details right.’ I said that’s all I ever want to do. That’s the way I work. That’s exactly what I had in mind as well.” Favreau even attended a French culinary school and worked in some of Choi’s restaurants prior to filming, which becomes obvious while watching the flick. Favreau’s hands move like an artist when handling his dishes. Check out this grilled cheese-making scene and you’ll see what I mean. Just make sure you have some sliced sourdough and cheddar on hand ‘cause cravings are sure to follow!
Hatfield’s was also where Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) sat through a terse staged lunch in the Season 3 episode of Scandal titled “Ride, Sally, Ride.”
The space also masks as Jimmy’s, the restaurant belonging to Jimmy Martino (John Stamos), in the new Fox series Grandfathered. The interior of the eatery . . .
. . . and the kitchen area are featured on the show.
Exterior filming, though, takes place at Faith & Flower, located in The Watermarke Tower at 705 West 9th Street in downtown Los Angeles. That same building is also where Jimmy lives on the show.
During the space’s stint as Meson G (which you can check out some photographs of here), it masked as New York restaurant Nolita for the pilot episode of the 2005 television series Kitchen Confidential. I had never heard of the show, which was created by Darren Starr and starred cuties Bradley Cooper and Owain Yeoman, prior to doing research for this post, but it looks great! You can check it out for free on Hulu.
Thanks to my friend Molly, from the fabulous DIY/lifestyle website Almost Makes Perfect, I learned that David Boreanaz was punked at Meson G during Season 6 of Punk’d.
In 2008, when the site housed Red Pearl Kitchen, it appeared in the Season 4 episode of The Hills titled “We’ll Never Be Friends” as the spot where Doug Reinhardt took Lauren Conrad on a date.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Hatfield’s restaurant, from Chef, was formerly located at 6703 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. The space is currently closed and awaiting a new tenant.
ARIA Resort & Casino “The Bachelor”
Each season, The Bachelor reality series whisks its stars and contestants to various exotic, high-end locales. During Brad Womack’s second stint as The Bachelor, he and the ladies (including my girl Emily Maynard) headed to the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Prior to last month, I had not been to Sin City in over a decade (that’s like a lifetime in Vegas years!), long before the ARIA had been built, and I was absolutely itching to stalk the place. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there to grab cocktails our second night in town.
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ARIA Resort & Casino, which is comprised of two curvilinear glass towers, is situated in the middle of CityCenter, a 67-acre, 6-building complex consisting of 3 condominium towers, 3 hotels with a total of 4,800 rooms, and an upscale mall named The Shops at Crystals.
ARIA was designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and opened to the public in December 2009. According to a USA Today article from that year, the site’s unusual name was derived from the fact that the hotel is the focal point of the CityCenter complex and arias are the focal points of operas.
The AAA Five Diamond-rated hotel stands at 600 feet tall, measures 4,000,000 square feet, and is nothing short of stunning! The property features 4,004 rooms and suites, 16 restaurants, 15 bars and nightclubs, 5 pools, 3 hot tubs, an 80,000-square-foot spa, a convention center, a theater, and, of course, a casino.
ARIA’s three-story lobby boasts incredible textures. I realize that is kind of an odd way to describe the design of a hotel, but every corner of the place seems to sport a uniquely tactile feature. From a hanging glass ball curtain . . .
. . . to a wall of thick, reclaimed wood planks . . .
. . . to a massive chandelier made of what appeared to be paper-thin shells – every décor piece had its own unique look and feel and, when put together, the result was fabulous.
I was especially enamored of the 84-foot silver sculpture situated behind the registration desk. Named Silver River, the piece, which was designed by Maya Lin, who also designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., was inspired by the layout of the Colorado River.
And don’t even get me started on The Shops at Crystals! It is easily the most architecturally unique mall I have ever set foot in.
I mean, check out that ceiling!
The Crystals’ Starbucks was pretty darn amazing, as well.
During a Season 15 episode of The Bachelor, Brad Womack and the ladies ventured to Las Vegas for a series of dates. The ARIA was used extensively throughout the episode.
While there, the women stayed in one of the hotel’s massive Sky Suites.
Many of the dates took place at ARIA, as well.
The most memorable date, for me at least, was Shawntel Newton’s shopping spree date at The Shops at Crystals, during which she got to purchase anything and everything she wanted. Um, DREAM DATE!
As if that wasn’t enough, Shawntel’s date ended with a dinner and fireworks show on the roof of Crystals.
ARIA was also featured in a Season 6 episode of The Bachelorette in which Ali Fedotowsky took Jesse Beck to Las Vegas for a one-on-one date.
During the date, the couple spent time at ARIA’s Liquid Pool & Lounge . . .
. . . and ate dinner in a Sky Villa.
They also attended a private concert with singer Jamie Cullum at ARIA’s Haze Nightclub, which has since closed.
Much of Last Vegas, one of my favorite movies of 2013, took place at ARIA.
In the comedy, childhood buddies Billy (Michael Douglas), Paddy (Robert De Niro), Archie (Morgan Freeman) and Sam (Kevin Kline) gather at ARIA for Billy’s bachelor party.
Though much of the hotel was featured throughout the movie, the guys’ four-bedroom Penthouse Villa was just a set.
In the 2013 thriller Now You See Me, the Four Horsemen – J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) – were arrested at the ARIA.
One of the hotel’s Sky Villas was used in the filming.
And this past weekend, Sarah Jessica Parker was on hand at The Shops at Crystals for the launch of the pop-up boutique for her The SJP shoe collection (images below via The Shops at Crystals Instagram and the SJP Collection Instagram).
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: ARIA Resort & Casino, from The Bachelor, is located at 3730 South Las Vegas Boulevard in Las Vegas. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.
Latest “L.A.” Mag Post – SoCal’s “Furious 7” Locations
Don’t forget to read today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about the L.A. locations featured in Furious 7. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.
A Visit with My Grandma
My grandma is currently in town for a visit, so I will probably not be able to post a new column until later in the week as I will be spending time with her. I hope all of my fellow stalkers have a great few days!
18th Street Coffee House from “Modern Family”
As I have said countless times before on this blog, there’s pretty much nothing I love more than a filming location that serves coffee. So I thought stalking the 18th Street Coffee House in Santa Monica, which was featured in the Season 6 episode of Modern Family titled “Rash Decisions,” would be a pleasant experience. I was wrong. But more on that in a bit.
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In “Rash Decisions,” Alex Dunphy (Ariel Winter) attends a college interview for Princeton at a local café. While there, she realizes that the interviewer, Vanessa (Aya Cash), is bored, so she recounts a story recently told by her sister, Haley Dunphy (Sarah Hyland), involving sneaking into Dodger Stadium. In doing so, she inadvertently calls Vanessa “slut.” Interview over!
Thankfully, 18th Street Coffee House’s real life exterior signage was clearly shown in the scene which made the place easy to track down.
When I showed up to stalk the café, I took several photographs outside before walking in, large camera in hand. I ordered my drink, camera still in hand (did I mention it was large?), and asked the barista all sorts of questions about the filming of “Rash Decisions,” questions she seemed just barely to tolerate. The attitude there is just a wee bit pretentious (as evidenced by countless reviews on Yelp). I fangirled out nonetheless, explaining that I had come in solely to see the place because of its appearance on Modern Family. After I got my latte, I snapped the picture below and all of a sudden the barista got upset with me, not-at-all politely informing me that photographs were most certainly not allowed on the premises. You’d think she would have mentioned this beforehand, while I was asking about Modern Family, when she undoubtedly had to have seen the big ol’ camera in my hand. Either way, I would have expected her to be polite about the whole thing, which she was not. I’ll never understand places that don’t allow photographs, but do allow filming. Not to mention that there are a myriad of customer pictures of the place featured on the 18th Street Coffee Shop Facebook page. Go figure.
The 18th Street Coffee House actually has quite a few rules. Cell phone use is prohibited there, which is something I can typically get behind. Who wants to listen to someone talking loudly on a phone inside of an eatery? That is one of my biggest pet peeves. But, according to several Yelpers, at 18th Street you aren’t allowed to look at your phone. So if you want to grab a coffee, sit down and answer a few emails, be forewarned that you will not be allowed to (though the guy in the above photo appears to be doing so). The rule is apparently in place to encourage interaction and conversation. While I agree that it is a nice sentiment to want customers to interact with the people they are dining with rather than having their heads buried in cell phones during a visit, when someone is alone I don’t see why he or she should not be able to check their email or surf the web via their cell phone. I’m all about having rules and like the thought of a restaurant wanting to establish a peaceful, quiet environment, but there is also such a thing as overkill. (This scene from Bridesmaids comes to mind.)
It has long been rumored that the 18th Street Coffee House is owned by Bob Dylan and this 2002 Los Angeles magazine article stated that the place’s business permit, as well as that of the boxing club located downstairs from it, are in the name of Dylan’s manager, Jeff Rosen. When asked about the ownership, Jeff said, “I know nothing about that . .. Can’t you find something more interesting to write about?” Yep, that pretty much sums up the attitude of the whole place.
My coffee was excellent, though. The place was not so pretentious as to not offer whole milk (another of my pet peeves when it comes to coffee shops), so my latte was perfectly creamy and delicious. And I will say that the café is definitely picturesque, both inside and out, though I will, sadly, most likely not be going back.
The 18th Street Coffee Shop has appeared onscreen several times. In the Season 1 episode of Californication titled “The Devil’s Threesome,” which aired in 2007, Mia Lewis (Madeline Zima) and Dani (Rachel Miner) discussed what Dani thought was Mia’s new book [though the tome was actually written by Hank Moody (David Duchovny)] over coffee at 18th Street.
In 2009, the coffee shop popped up in the Season 7 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm titled “Denise Handicapped,” as the spot where Larry David (playing himself) met a handicapped woman named Denise (Anita Barone).
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: 18th Street Coffee House, from the “Rash Decisions” episode of Modern Family, is located at 1725 Broadway in Santa Monica.
New “L.A.” Mag Post – Happy Birthday, Hef!
Be sure to check out today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about the Playboy Mansion’s many appearances onscreen and the 89th birthday of its famous owner. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.